An experienced natural history and botanical illustrator, Lizzie’s work appears in books and magazines around the world, on postage stamps and mugs.
She lives very happily in Hay on Wye, and works her garden studio surrounded by plants and birds.
Finding out what I’m working on,
follow my blog or find me on instagram.
Latest blog is all about illustrating thebeautiful grasses of Montserrat for UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum and Montserrat National Trust
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2025/11/grasses-of-montserrat-and-the-eastern-caribbean/
Grasses are amongst my favourite subjects, so this was a dream of a job.
#botanicalart #botanicalillustration #sciart #Poaceae #graminaceae #montserrat
These are Red-rumped agouti, Dasyprocta leporina nobelie.
They fill the same ecological niche as rabbits, and are a common sight in Montserrat, grazing on grasses and fallen fruit.
As with all mammals, the challenge is to build enough colour and texture into the fir using tiny brush strokes.
Other challenges include figuring out the anatomy of the feet and the ears, and trying not to give the animal a n expression.
I have failed on the last point. One looks scared and hopeful, the other looks irritable. What can you do?
These are one of the 17 illustrations I completed for the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum for Montserrat earlier in the month.
#naturalhistoryillustration #naturalscienceillustration #nature #agouti #dasyprocta #sciart #montserrat
Lizzie Harper Newsletter October 2025
Take a look, October`s newsletter is out. Fancy catching up with what Lizzie`s been working on, accessing her films and blogs, and having the chance to buy originals? You know where to look...
Well, that`s this week done.
For various reasons I had a whole lot to get through, and I`ve managed to knock out 16 full watercolours in one week. Very pleased, relieved, and surprised.
They need tweaking, scanning, cleaning and filing. But getting them done means I can start on the next set on Monday.
(I`ll probably post them separately at some point, so you can see them a bit clearer. Suffice to say they`re all animals from Montserrat and, even at high speed, were a total joy to work on.
#naturalhistoryillustration #sciart #notahobby
My latest blog is out, it`s on the Lamiaceae, or Dead-nettle family of wildflowers:
https://lizzieharper.co.uk/2025/10/wildflower-families-lamiaceae/
It`s one of a series on common flower families I`ve been doing, featuring my botanical illustrations and attempts to simplify the complexities of botany and classification.
So come and have a look at the mints, bee-balm, dead nettles, and wild thyme that feature in this family; and learn what features put them all under the same classification umbrella.
#wildflowers #wildflowerfamilies #botany #botanicalart #botanicalillustration #sciart #naturelovers #flowerart #illustration
Had a excellent weekend painting a penny bun Boletus edulis fungi & a Rosy button one, and chatting to @fungitownhay visitors in @haycastletrust in Hay.
My mate @emanations_myth filmed me at work in a borrowed (appropriately themed) shirt.
It was such a hrwat event, such passion for all things fungi, such hard work from @puffinsmithofficial and so so many others to make it happen.
So much going on! Fungal hats, tables of foraged beauties, the whole town full of fungal themed shop windows, amazing art installations, hundreds of visitors, talks and films, so much humour and fun...
I even got to drive the glorious bonsai exhibits of @mycomyth home afterwards (an honour, but super scary).
Thankyou everyone involved
#fungi #hayonwye #fungitown #botanialillustration #boletus
Had an amazing day at #Fungitown in Hay on Wye today, sat upstairs painting this gorgeous pink-flushed Rosy bonnet mushroom, Mycena rosea.
So many fascinating people to talk to , and so much sharing of fungal inspiration and ideas. A privilege to be a part of it.
If you`re here for the weekend, be sure to come and say hi, and DO NOT miss out on the amazing bonsai / fungus / video installation in the upstairs gallery at Hay castle!
I`ll there 10 - 4pm tomorrow.
#fungi #fungus #fungiart #naturalhsitoryillustration #botanicalart #mycena #watercolour @fungitownhay @haycastletrust Trust
This weekend, Hay on Wye hosts Fungitown.
https://www.fungitown.org.uk/
The whole town is involved with talks, walks, mushrooms in shop windows, exhibitions, fungal films, and mycelogical stalls in Hay Castle Trust (where I`ll be selling mushroom and fungus prints, drawing toadstools, and selling originals of my botanical and animal illustrations from 10 - 4 on sat 4th and sun 5th October)
Come and visit! There`s so much to do! And if you are in Hay, stop by the castle and pop up to the mezzanine (outside the gallery) to say hi. I`d love to see you.
#botanicalart #botanicalillustration #sciart #fungus #fungusart #fungitown @fungitownhay #fungi #fungilove
